I will send you far away

My Personal Devotional Sunday 2-15-15 (Home) 

Scripture reading:  Lev 25       Ps 25-26  Acts 22

S.  Acts 22:21-22 "But the Lord said to me, 'Leave Jerusalem, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles!' " The crowd listened until Paul came to that word; then with one voice they shouted, "Away with such a fellow! Kill him! He isn't fit to live!"  NLT

O.  Paul held this wild crowd of angry Jewish fanatics in silence as he told them of his unexpected meeting with Jesus on the Damascus Road.  He had met his new “Lord” and uses that term to refer to Jesus from there on, ready to receive his direction in life from Him.  Until that moment he had thought he was serving God in his effort to annihilate the followers of “The Way”, but suddenly he is struck blind, overwhelmed by coming face to face with One Who is “The Way, the Truth and the Life”.  He has met Jesus, the Son of God.  Until then he had only known about Jehovah God, the Father, and probably only known Him as a distant and powerful God.  But now he surrenders his future into his new Lord’s hands.  “Just tell me what to do, Lord.  I will do it!”  But when he tells the Jewish crowd that his new Master, Jesus, is sending him to carry the Good News to the Gentiles he has touched their “fury button”.  The crowd screams, “Kill this guy! He isn't fit to live!"  Once again the soldiers, who cannot imagine what is going on, have to rescue him.

A.  Jesus issued a solemn command to His disciples before His ascension.  They were to go out into “all the world” to reach out to the nations, yes, the Gentiles.  And eventually some of his disciples would become foreign missionaries.  It becomes obvious that God is concerned about the lost among the heathen. 

Paul was a Jew.  Jews hated the heathen Gentiles.  Paul’s new Lord and Master had chosen a man once filled with hatred and fury for a mistaken cause, to fill with His Spirit of love and sacrifice and send out to love and save the very people that he had formerly hated.  

I will never forget when God called me to Argentina.  The year was 1962.  A tiny elderly lady missionary, Ruth Couchman, preached that Thursday night in my church in Colfax, California.  I was kneeling at the altar afterwards weeping for the lost in Argentina.  I had never seen the face of an Argentine, but for months I could not escape that burden and the voice of my Master.  “Rise up, leave your beloved church.  I will send you far away.  You are going as a missionary to Argentina!”  And now that I have traveled the length and breadth of Argentina many times, I have learned to love these special people more than ever.  And I find myself drawn back to barrios, villages and great cities to spread the same Good News that the Apostle Paul was carrying.

P.  Dear Lord, I pray for a miracle to restore my voice and for Your Holy Spirit’s anointing as I plan to return to the nation of a spiritually hungry people in a few weeks.  Master, I am not big enough for the task.  But I have heard You speak again!  You entered my despairing world after Frances was taken from my arms with a “new chapter” and a fresh call to join my fellow missionaries in a field, ripe for the harvest.  Your first apostle to the Gentiles was “not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”  May I, like Your servant Paul, be faithful to my calling!  Amen.

Ralph